Tutorials often forget to mention some key detail that prevents readers from replicating the author’s process. Other times, the author brings in

Rules for Writing Software Tutorials

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2025-01-02 14:30:03

Tutorials often forget to mention some key detail that prevents readers from replicating the author’s process. Other times, the author brings in hidden assumptions that don’t match their readers’ expectations.

The good news is that it’s easier than you think to write an exceptional software tutorial. You can stand out in a sea of mediocre guides by following a few simple rules.

Most people who seek out tutorials are beginners. They may not be beginners to programming, but they’re beginners to the domain they’re trying to learn about.

The browser should hot reload with the new text. Because of React’s efficient JSX transpilation, the change feels instant.

The browser doesn’t even have to soft reload the page because React’s reconciliation engine compares the virtual DOM to the rendered DOM and updates only the DOM elements that require changes.

A developer who’s new to the React web framework won’t understand terms like “JSX transpilation” or “reconciliation engine.” They probably also won’t understand “SPA,” “soft reload,” or “virtual DOM” unless they’ve worked with other JavaScript frameworks.